


Here Come the End Times

by PlutoApologist, SimmonsTheRavenclaw



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: 6000 Years of Pining, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 07:35:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20111479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlutoApologist/pseuds/PlutoApologist, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimmonsTheRavenclaw/pseuds/SimmonsTheRavenclaw
Summary: According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Mandy Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .aka, the Good Omens AU no one asked for





	1. I Slithered Here From Eden

This story starts, as several other stories, in a garden and with a three. The tree in this occasion was an apple tree, and the garden was the garden of Eden. More specifically, this story starts on the wall surrounding the garden, where an angel in white robes stood. Her white wings were spread out, her brown hair blowing majestically in the wind. She was looking out over the dessert, her eyes falling on the two dark skinned humans traversing over the plains. The male was holding a flaming sword, the angels flaming sword to be correct, while the woman was walking behind, holding her pregnant belly. It had previously been a very nice day, the kind of day serpents sunned them themselves on, but a storm loomed on the horizon. 

While the angel was watching the humans, a serpent was making its way up the wall. It got over the edge. It slithered with the air of somebody who had been slithering for far too long and had gotten irritating aches from it. It made its way next to the angel, and rose until it was as tall. As the demon, for yes, it was a demon standing next to the angel. It finished its transformation, she shook her arms, legs and wings slightly. Her serpentine eyes glistened with a hunger Alyssa couldn’t place. Her wings rose to their position, mirroring the angels placements. Where the angels robes where white and pristine, the demons were black and tattered. The demon’s hair was blond and cut short, in contrast to the angel’s long dark. On the right side of her face, right in front of her ear, was a small snake tattoo.   
A silence fell, broken by an awkward eyebrow waggle from the demon. The demon looked down and her eyebrows quirked a bit.

“Wait, didn’t you have a sword? Like, a flaming sword?” She said, judgement clouding her voice.

“Well...You see... there was a small...problem” The angel answered, fidgeting with her hands, her eyes drifting towards the humans who were becoming smaller the further away from the wall they got. The demons eyes followed, and as she saw the flames in the distance she chuckled. “Is that your sword?” The angel moved her head in a way that the demon interpreted as a nod, which only made her laughter become more hysterical. The angel did not want to think about how free the demons laughter sounded, and at least not how that made her feel something stirring deep down.   
The demon finally managed to quell her laugher down, and smiled to the demon. “Well, I guess I never introduced myself, I’m Emma ”

“I’m Alizafale. If I had friends they would call me Alyssa.” 

“Alyssa, nice to meet you”

Alyssa would definitely not think about how good that name sounded from the demon’s slippery tongue, or Emma, as she was called. That was a slippery slope to have feelings. Especially for a demon. But Alyssa didn’t have feelings so no problem there, right?  
Emma did not notice Alyssa's inner battle, instead she was looking out towards the desert. “I can’t believe the Almighty threw them out over just one apple. I don’t see what's so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil. It’s not so bad knowing to cover your nakedness either.” 

“Well, I guess the Almighty has reasons”

“Oh yeah? What reasons? Messing around with humans like their own personal toys?”

“Well, they have a plan, they always have.”

“Oh yeah! The great plan!”

“Actually, it’s - “ Alyssa cleared her throat proudly and regarded Emma smugly. “Ineffable.”

“Ineffable?” The look Emma was giving Alyssa could only be described as finding out you were pronouncing a word wrong after years of saying it. Perhaps you say it a few more times just to enjoy the feeling on your tongue. This is how Emma felt about Alyssa.  
Alyssa’s eyes, which for the last minutes had been looking into Emma’s snake eyes, finally moved and looked back to the sandy plains thirsting for rain, and went wide when she saw that a lion had approached the humans. The man was fighting bravely with his new, flaming sword, making sure to keep the woman behind him. She had a fire in her eyes that bode well for the future. Seeing her sword again, it ignited Alyssa’s doubts about giving it away. 

“What if I did the wrong thing when I gave away the sword?” She studied the snake eyes, searching for reassurance.

“You’re an angel, I don’t think you can do the wrong thing” Emma’s voice was so soft, you could never have believed that she spent her days in hell. “Besides, you could just blame me if you get in trouble. It is my job to make a little bit of a mess after all.”  
“That’s not very angelic of me,” she gasped, putting a dramatic hand to her heart. Emma’s heart fluttered much like the butterflies, newly invented by the Almighty.

“I’ve always thought of your kind as a bit of a bastard, but by all means, don’t let me take the blame.”  
Alyssa did not know how to answer this, and instead just gazed at this demon, this Emma. 

“It would be a shame if one day everyone, demons and angels you know, decided to sacrifice the world.” She leaned on the wall, images of the future could be flashing through her mind. “It’s so beautiful.”

Her concentration was quickly shattered as a loud crack could be heard, and the world's first lightning storm was starting. She tipped her head up just as a couple of water droplets, a phenomenon later named rain started to fall. Her wings spread out and lifted in order to cover Emma, and the couple stood on the wall, looking out over what was the beginning of a new world. 

**6000 years later, aka 11 years before the end of the world **

Emma didn’t jam out in her car, no, she performed. As her red pickup truck raced towards her meeting place, the radio was blasting “Bohemian Rhapsody” louder than you would think a car which looked as old and beaten up as hers could survive. She dramatically mouthed the words, putting a pretend microphone to her mouth. The car inexplicably still drove the right direction without her hands on the wheel. Her hair was longer than it was 6000 years ago, and was now falling down to her shoulders. Her eyes were covered by sunglasses, which she really didn’t need since it was pitch black and the middle of the night. They covered even the corners of her eyes, not an iota of emotion emerging from the blackness.

While Emma was driving way faster than both the speed limit and the speed that her car should really be able to drive, the two other demons were rising from the ground. They had just emerged, but they had been lurking. They were always lurking. They could lurk for however long was necessary. While Emma looked relatively human, if you looked past the eyes and the wings that she almost never really got the chance to use anymore, these two were much more of what you would think when you thought of demons. Kevin, Duke of Hell, had a frog on his head, while Nick, Duke of Hell, had a chameleon. They stretched their arms a bit, before starting the short walk over to where they were supposed to meet the infamous demon. Nick carried a large basket, that should have maybe screamed and made a ruckus, but now was perfectly quiet. There was nothing more dangerous than the potential that was a baby, swaying delicately between whatever wind blew them. 

“How long has she been here? 6000 years?” Kevin asked. 

“Yeah, I head she’s gone native. Just like them she has no sense of time,” Nick grumbled, scratching idly at a scar bright against his paper thin white skin. Traces of his age were etched on it. “I don’t trust her” 

“Good, it would be a strange world if demons went around trusting each other” 

The look Kevin gave could best be described as the feeling you get when your friends start repeating that one spelling mistake you made. “You know what I mean”

At that moment they noticed some music approaching, and soon they heard the car and saw the lights from the car, blasting a song that they assumed was punk. It wasn’t, but these demons had no taste in music, and yes that’s their fault.  
The pick up came to a stop, right in front of the church, and Emma opened the door, leaning casually against the door, her leather jacket lazily slung over her shoulder. She wore a dark red flannel, and ripped jeans, again proving to the demons that she’d gone too native. She lazily smiled, neatly folding up the glasses.

“What did I miss?” She walked over, seeming drunk but still graceful, and snapped her fingers, and the lights of her car turned off. Nick and Kevin rolled their eyes, unamused by her dramatics.

“You’re late.” 

“Well, you would have been too if you had to drive 500 miles in one hour,” she mumbled 

“Now that you are here, let’s start with the recounting of the evil deeds.” Emma lazily blew hair out of her eyes, apprehension clear in them, groaning.

“Do we really have t - “

“I have tempted a priest. As he walked down the street and saw all the pretty girls in the sun, I put Doubt in his mind. He would’ve been a saint, but within a decade we shall have him,” Nick interrupted. Emma thought of all the pretty girls she could have. She could change her appearance within the blink of an eye or tempt a girl to caress her muscled arms, but she didn’t want a girl. She wanted an angel, specifically Alyssa, with her soft smile and caring eyes. 

“Very interesting,” Emma hummed, already thinking of what she would drink later. 

“I have corrupted a politician. I let him think one tweet wouldn’t hurt. Within a year we shall have him,” Kevin proclaimed, spreading his arms in a grandiose manner. They looked expectantly at her, her smile just growing brighter by the second. She wiggled excitedly, under their growing discontent.

“Okay, you’re gonna love this. So i made a small law, that no one can change. Every pride month all public buildings in the US have to put up the rainbow flag” 

The two other demons just stared at her confused

“And how will this bring us more souls for our master?”

“Well, you see, the homophobes, especially politicians, will get so mad about this, and they can’t do anything about it, and…well…”She was met with more blank stares. “I don’t know how to explain it. You need to be… woke?”

How could she explain? That twenty thousand people’s blood pressure would raise and they would troll online making fifty thousand more people’s blood pressure raise? No one would even be able to keep track of the side effects. Demons like Kevin and Nick weren’t creative enough to think up things like Tinder or commercials or bootlegs. 

“We are awake” Kevin just stared and shook his head “Anyways, let’s go back to the matter at hand”

“The matter at hand is that this is now in your hands.” Kevin passed the basket along like it was a dirty unwashed potato. She knew from personal experience that Kevin hated potatoes, from how he had personally started the great potato famine. Emma took it and looked inside, not really expecting food, but still a bit disappointed when it was a baby in there. “So this is him? The one who’s gonna end it all?” She tried to keep the sadness out of her voice, hidden behind a mask of annoyance. The thing about it all ending neither Heaven or Hell could content Emma. While Heaven was safe, but mind numbingly boring, there was no freedom. There was no freedom in hell, heaven was more like being a glass cage where you can see and hear, but everything muted and blurry. 

“He really wants me to do this? I mean, I’m only a minor demon - “

“Oh no, you’re famous. Only you could do this,” Nick said with a shit eating grin. “Now sign here, and then you have to deliver it” He pulled out a sheet of parchment, and Emma didn't even look it over before she pulled out a pen from an inner pocket. She signed a strange symbol with ease, the pen changing colors as it wrote.

“What’s that?” Nick commented wryly.

“It changes colors,” Emma mumbled as she finished the tail end of a demonic symbol and capped it with a flourish.

“Good, now get on your way, and don’t fuck this up,” Nick said as he rolled up the parchment and handed it over to Kevin. Emma just nodded, turned on the car with a snap of her fingers and began her journey towards the end. 

While Emma was having her meeting with her superiors in some dark, unknown part of the country, Alyssa was in a brightly lit, small, but well known sushi restaurant, waiting for her order.  
“Here is a selection of your favorite sushi rolls, my dear Alyssa-san,” the waiter said in Japanese, setting down a plate. Alyssa thanked him, also in Japanese, before picking up her chopsticks getting ready to eat, but before she could put the food into her mouth, she suddenly felt a familiar presence next to her. To her right, in her green pantsuit, stood one of Alyssa’s superiors, Mrs. Greene. Mrs. Greene was not actually her name, but she almost always walked around in a green pantsuit and the nickname had stuck over the last few millennia. It had first been mocking, or polite teasing as some called it, but she had taken her title to use and disciplined them. Several unhappy angels were put on prayers duty and never said with anything but respect. 

“Alizafale,” she said, looking down at the sushi with a disdainful look. “Why do you consume that? You’re an angel”

“It’s sushi.” Alyssa looks almost offended, but continues. “It’s nice, you dip it in soy sauce. It’s very common among humans, and I’m supposed to pass as them, am I not? In fact, you should try some. To blend in.” She dipped a small one and offered it, popping it into her mouth with a shrug after Ms. Greene shook her head tightly. “I don’t not sully the temple of my celestial body with gross matter. But that does not matter, it’s not gonna be here for much longer”

Alyssa blinked, not wanting to confirm what she was afraid of.

“We have information that things are moving. The demon Emma, may be involved. It’s impressive, she’s been here for as long as you. It’s a miracle she hasn’t spotted you yet” 

Forcing her face not to show any sign of fondness hearing Emma’s name was harder than Alyssa wanted it to be. 

“I know, miracles are what we do. Your job is to watch her, and keep notes on what she's doing, without her knowing”  
Oh if only Mrs. Greene knew of how much Alyssa would love to stare at Emma and memorize the shape of her beastly face, under moonlight and sunlight and everything in between. So beastly that it stirred something feral in her. She only nodded, as Mrs. Greene walked past her, clapping her hard on the shoulder, partly a warning and partly a suggestion, and Alyssa was left alone with her sushi and thoughts.


	2. Babe, there's something wretched about this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let’s get this to 666 hits lads
> 
> Jk, thanks for reading the last chapter and leaving comments and kudos! It means a lot to us!

“Just fall, it will be easy, they said,” Emma muttered, slamming the horn, a long low honk sinking into her bones. “Why me? Shitshitshitshitshitshit” For every shit she hit the horn again, and only stopped when the song on the radio suddenly stopped and a voice came out. This voice present to everyone but only you if were damned enough to hear it. She had persuaded the demons to use technology, but clearly she had to be more specific in her instructions.

“It’s because of your great work over the years, what you did with Route 50 was a work of demonic genius”

What Emma wanted to say was “SHITSHTISHITSHIT”, but what she did say was “...”

The radio cut back to Under Pressure, and if Emma didn’t already know that God had a sense of humor, she would have known it now. The radio crackled again and Emma sighed in anticipation of the voice that would make anybody want to jump off a cliff.

“This is very important. If you don’t follow through you will be punished with “  
“ - listening to what’s new pussycat with a random it’s unusual, I know.” Emma sighed, already missing Freddie Mercury’s dulcet tones. “I should have never suggested that. Remind me to not talk to the great unholiness drunk again,” she muttered under her breath.

While Emma was driving 100mph towards the cloister, two other cars were also heading the same way. In Car 1, there was the british ambassador's wife, and her security team. The ambassador would have been there, but she was too busy doing important things in England, such as sorting papers with big red stamps on them and filing papers under drawers that were triple locked. Marcella, the wife, currently in the car shouting at the ambassador via a video call, was on her way to give birth to a beautiful baby boy.

In Car 2 there was your everyday man Jess Young and his wife, also on her way to give birth to another beautiful boy. His wife was also shouting, but not in the same way that the ambassador’s wife was shouting. She was shouting more about the general pain she was in, while Marcella was more angry about the fact that her wife was an ocean way while she was doing all the work. 

So if you can count you know that there are now three cars on their way to the same place, one going more stylishly, and you might wonder what kind of place could be the birthplace for an ambassador’s son, a commoner and the Antichrist, the lord of darkness, devourer of worlds, the one who will end it all. The location they’re all heading to is the Order of the Chattering Nuns, a group of satanic nuns devoted to our lord satan as a group of theatre geeks are devoted to the original cast, noted, this only applies if the original cast is good. They’ve been working for the dark lord for 1000 years, and now was finally the moment they were waiting for. This was going to be the biggest birthday of all, not some drab old party you throw for the coworker you hate.

Sister Chris stood in front of a powerpoint presentation, showing two pictures, one graphic of a normal baby and one graphic of a baby with horns and a tail, you know, like how you imagine the antichrist would look like. They actually looked quite cute adorning the maybe, looking more like a halloween costume than the intended purpose.

“Ms. Emma is on her way now, with the antichrist, while the british ambassador's wife is on her way to give birth to a normal boring baby. When they arrive, then you Sister Emma is gonna show Mrs. Lesbica to her room, while you Sister Sigrid is gonna prepare the room. Then both of you are gonna help me deliver the baby. Sister Kat, you’re gonna make sure they have all they need after.” As she talked she pointed to each of the nuns, all except for Sister Maria, who raised her hand slowly.

“I’m sorry Sister Chris, I don’t have a role.” Sister Maria was the type of person whose thoughts left her before she could catch a whiff of any common sense.  
Sister Chris looked at her, as if she’s never seen her before “You can make sure there are cookies,” she said, with the most deadpan face you can imagine. She wrinkled her forehead trying to think of ways to make her task seem important. “Cookies are very important to the illusion that we are quite normal. Make sure to get the ones with pink frosting and sprinkles.” Sister Maria nodded, a bit confused, but she had the spirit. Sister Chris clapped her hands, and the nuns scurried to work, which was good, because the babies were not waiting for anyone. 

And then it began.

In the next few hours a thing is gonna happen which could best be described as a game of “Which cup is the ball under?”, but with higher stakes, and with babies and parents, instead of a ball and cups. We’re gonna call the ambassadors baby Baby A, the Young baby, baby B, and the baby Emma’s bringing as the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness.

The first one to arrive at the cloister was baby A, with his mom still shouting at her wife while Sister Emma, not to be confused with the demon Emma, who had never been called Sister Anything during her long existence, and Sister Chris lead them to room 1.

Almost immediately as the Sisters had lead them away, Jess and his wife entered, making Sister Kat jump in surprise, since they had not expected the Youngs until later in the week. She quickly rearranged her brain cells into a shape that let her utter words, and managed to lead the wife to room 3, while sending Jess outside.

As Jess was waiting the pick up truck pulled up outside the cloister. Emma stumbled out, basket in hand. “Hey, do you know which room they’re in?” She asked, slamming the door behind her without a care. The car had scratches aplenty from going off road, off off road, and far beyond what the human mind can imagine.

“They’re in room 3,” Jess said, wondering what a woman like this, who could sneak her way into a rock concert but also make a flower crown, did with a picnic basket in the middle of the night.

“Thanks” She snapped her fingers, shutting out the lights and entered the building, heading for room 3. Before she got there she almost ran into a nun, which would be one of many small coincidences which would end up having a larger effect down the line. “Oh sorry, I didn’t see you there” Sister Maria said, carrying a basket of cookies. Emma looked at the nun, thinking for a few seconds and then stretching out her hand and holding out the basket. She could care less if this went well and if it went wrong, who was to find out?  
“This is going to room 3” Sister Maria’s eyes went wide as she finally figured out who the bundle was and immediately put down the basket with cookies, and pulled up the basket with a baby. The first switch had just occurred. 

Sister Maria made her way to room 3, where the Young’s baby (baby B) had just been born, and were laying in a crib next to the sleeping woman. Sister Maria put down the antichrist next to the sleeping baby. Baby B was wrapped in a blue blanket, while Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness was wrapped in a cute red blanket, his father’s signature color. Satan surprisingly did not look as good in red as most people thought, but that’s a story for another time. In this story, Sister Maria has just put down what we will now refer to as baby ADOKAOTBPGBTICDPOTWFOLSOSALOD when Jess knocked on the door and entered. Sister Maria, believing that this was the brittish ambassador was a bit confused when asked in an american accent “Can I come in”, so she only nodded. He walked towards the babies, brow frowning when he saw that there were two babies, and not just one like he had planned for to match the tiny baby onesie.

“Oh, no, this is yours” she pointed to the one in red, “this one’s just a spare baby” she pointed to the one in blue.  
“A spare? I don’t know hospitals but…”  
“No, no, I was surprised too, but on my first day they told all sorts of things - “Sister Maria was prepared to chatter endlessly making good on her placement in the chattering order, but Mr. Young cut her off with a pained smile and noise of acknowledgement.  
This was also a perfect moment for Sister Kat to ender, as she did, she walked over to Sister Maria. She looked down at the two babies, and up to her fellow sister and winked. Sister Maria winked back.

As methods of human communication go, the human vink is quite versatile. For example, Sister Kat’s meant; “Where the hell have you been? We’re ready to make the switch, and here’s you in the wrong room with the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Prince of This World, Lord of Darkness, talking to commoner.” And as far as she was concerned, Sister Maria’s wink meant; “This child is the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Prince of This World, Lord of Darkness. But I can’t talk now, because there’s this outsider here.”  
Sister Maria on the other hand, had thought that Sister Kat’s wink was more on the lines of; “Well done, that, Sister Maria, switched over the babies all by herself. Now, indicate to me the superfluous child, and I shall remove it and let you get on with your conversation with His Royal Excellency, the Brittish ambassador.”

“Extra baby removal” Sister Kat said as she removed baby B from the room, and into room 1 where the Marcella was waiting. “Here is your baby back, weighed and measured,” she said, handing her the baby. “You must name the child” Sister Chris said, as she walked closer to the child. “We thought we would name him Thaddeus, after his grandfather-”  
“Damian is an excellent name” “Damian?”  
“What about Grey then?” Marcella looked at the baby for a little while, before nodding and cooing. And thus, baby B was named Grey. 

In room 3 a similar conversation was happening. “Damian? No i’m not sure if it fits” Sister Maria thought for a few seconds before saying “What about Alex?” this was the moment where Mrs. Young woke up, and Mr. Young leaned over and put the baby in her arms. “What do you say dear, does he not look like an Alex?”

It would be nice to think that the nuns had the surplus baby discreetly adopted. That he grew to be a happy, normal child, and then grew further to become a normal fairy contended adult. And, maybe, that is what happened. He probably has many colorful socks that he is proud of matching every day.


	3. Heaven and Hell Were Words to Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHORS NOTE: demon!emma created tinder not clickbait

The most important phone call in history was not Edison’s first phone call, but Emma’s phone call to Alyssa after the momentous switch. As soon as Emma was on her way away from the Chattering nuns she pressed on the pedal, with visions of destruction danced in her head. 

“Pick up, pick up, pick up-”

“I’m sorry, it’s late and we’re closed. If you don’t stop calling, you will be conveniently sent on a permanent vacation. ” Emma let out a sigh of relief when she heard Alyssa’s voice. After years of being friends she knew that she’d never gotten a proper voicemail message, and it was really her on the other end. 

“Alyssa it’s me! We have to meet” 

Alyssa was quiet on the other end for a few seconds before releasing a breath and answering “Yes, I believe you are correct. I assume this is about-”

“Armageddon, yes” Emma answered before Alyssa could finish the sentence. 

They had an Arrangement that wasn’t honestly deserving of the capital A, but the capital gave it a flair that made Alyssa tolerate it. The Arrangement was that occasionally the angel would hop over to do some demonic activities and the demon would do celestial activities. They had more in common with each other than their respective superiors and coworkers, so occasionally Emma happened to be distracted by a pretty girl while she was supposed to be stopping Alyssa. 

Emma and Alyssa had lots of meeting places, Emma’s favorite being Alyssa's bookshop since she loved seeing the angel in her natural habitat. She fit like a cat fit inside a cardboard box it wasn’t meant for. Alyssa’s favorite was also Alyssa’s bookshop because that’s where she felt most comfortable and she loved seeing the demon squirm at the aura of holiness. Today’s meeting was not in set in the bookstore, at least, they didn’t start in the bookstore. They had many meeting places, discovered in different eras naturally. The bandstand also ranking high, they’d found that during WW2, but today's meeting was set in a park. Central Park to be exact, a bench overlooking Turtle Lake. In 1986, when the adopt-a-bench program was started, Emma had considered having the bench be dedicated to their friendship, but decided against it when she realized she would have to comprice centuries of complicated friendship into one single sentence. Words were Alyssa’s thing, not hers, and she could not exactly ask Alyssa for help, as this would ruin the surprise. So she’d decided against it, but they still met on the same bench so often that it could be considered theirs. They’d found this to be a reprieve from the blitzes in London and it only took a minor miracle to get there. 

Alyssa walked over to the bench where Emma was slouching, one arm over the back and one foot hanging over the hand railing. The demon looked like the definition of “gays can’t sit straight”, with a leather jacket and flannel (blue this time) hung over her frame. The sunglasses were on, which Alyssa found kind of sad, because she loved Emma’s yellow eyes. She sat down, back straight enough to balance an entire tea set filled to the brim, and was wearing and expression which made it seem like if even so much of a drop if this imaginary tea spilled she would be quite perturbed. They were quite the odd couple, not the kind of people you would expect to have been on friendly terms for over 6000 years, but that was maybe one of the things they liked about each other. 

“How’s the bookshop?” Emma drawled. 

“Good, how’s the car?” Alyssa quipped.

“Good” Emma started before they both said in unison:

“So-” 

“The end of the world,” Emma continued.

“Yep.” Alyssa popped the ‘p’, frowning. 

“And you’re sure it’s the antichrist?” 

Emma didn’t look at her, choosing to look at a squirrel running up a three instead, but answered. “Yes, I delivered it myself...well, more like I handed it over, but the point still stands”

“A british diplomat, really? As if Armageddon was a cinematographic show you wanted to sell in as many countries as possible” Alyssa looked away from Emma, and looked down at her fine boots instead before adding sadly: “I’m not ready for the end of the world. Demons versus angel. I still haven’t seen Hamilton. We will win of course, you do know that?” 

This line finally made Emma look away from the squirrel, who had now gotten to a branch and was trying to reach a nut from one of the branches. 

“You really think so don’t you? You believe that Heaven will finally triumph?” She emphasised on the word heaven, even adding a little flare with some jazz hands. “Just wondering, how many first-class composers do you have up there? Because I know we have Mozart, and Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky, and all of the Bachs-”

Emma listed them on her manicured hands as she did, pushing her hands close to Alyssa the more she listed.

“Okay I get your point!” Alyssa finally shouted, forcing her eyes away from Emma's hands and up to her eyes. 

“I know what you’re going to suggest, and I’m afraid I can’t do that. You could still belong there you know.” She was looking into the demons sunglasses, only seeing her own reflection staring back at her, but knowing that Emma was looking back.

“I don’t belong there, not anymore,” Emma shook her head sadly. “Not even for you could I do that.”

Alyssa just stared sady, and clapped her hands together, breaking the silence which had covered them.

“I think I still owe you a lunch from that time in Paris, so can I tempt you to some?” Alyssa was constantly trying to get Emma to eat, but it was not often she said yes. She didn’t say yes now either, but she nodded once and got up from the bench and reached her hand out to the angel. Alyssa grabbed it, suppressing the feeling of how well their hands fit together, and they left the park, heading for the Starlight, one of their other well used meeting places, this one from the 50s. They were partners and that was the same as shaking hands. That was it. 

As they walked out Emma got a look on her face as you do when you’re trying to think of something important, but can only remember unnecessary things, like how many countries there are in the UN (195), the name of the world's first programmer (Ada Lovelace) or what you ate for dinner the day before (Nothing if you ask Emma and sushi if you ask Alyssa). 

“Paris, was that one of yours or one of ours?”  
Alyssa got the same look on her face, before answering.

“I can’t honestly remember, but we had crepes!” Her face lit up on the last part.

“Crepes, that’s one thing that doesn’t exist in Heaven.”

”Shut up, we have good barbers.”

They climbed into Emma’s pick up, heading for the Starlight Diner.

After they’d finished their meal, an oreo milkshake for Emma and a piece of apple pie for Alyssa they finally headed to Alyssa’s bookstore with the plan of getting really drunk and hopefully forgetting this whole “end of the world” thing. 

“Does your bookstore happen to have alcohol?” Emma proposed, leaning on the table, getting some looks that guaranteed some people’s wine was slightly sour. 

Alyssa thought for a moment, savoring the crust. Emma had to stop herself from staring at her kissable lips. 

“I have a ton of old wine bottles saved up for a special occasion, I guess this could count”

An angel and a demon, who gets drunk faster? This is a question no scientist have ever spent hours wondering about, since most scientists do not spend their days wondering about the drinking habits of ethereal beings. If they did wonder about it though, they would probably come to the conclusion that demons drinks more and therefore have a higher tolerance. What this conclusion forgets it’s how much wine angels really drink and how little demons care about their bodies and their constitution. In all honesty, the question who gets drunk faster forgets the important fact that angels and demons vessels are made with the same mold, and therefore there is no clear difference when it comes to the drinking habits of demons and angels, and it’s up to the specific angel and demon in question. 

With Emma and Alyssa it was, and had always been, Emma who got drunk first. When she was extremely drunk once she had created the idea of an application where you could upload pictures of yourself and have people swipe right or left if they wanted to date you. This would centuries later turn into a large phenomenon, which Emma would claim all honor for, since she came up with the idea 500 years before telephones were a thing. 

Today however, the duo was sitting on the sofa in the back of the bookshop. Sitting might not be the right word, as Alyssa was sitting, but Emma was more or less lying on the sofa, legs spread over Alyssa's lap. This decidedly did not make Alyssa’s heart rate jump, or that what she told herself. 

Three hours after they’d left the diner, the tables was littered with bottles. Alyssa usually tried to keep up how many she’d had, but she’d lost count after the 14th. This had nothing to do with that around the 14th was where Emma had moved from the chair on the other side of the room to the sofa, where she was currently laying. Her sunglasses had disappeared 9 drinks ago among the piles of precarious books in her bookshop. 

“The point is…” Emma’s brain was a cat trying to catch a laser pointer that appeared and disappeared at the owners whim. She tried to focus on Alyssa, but she currently saw three sets of Alyssa’s eyes, each one just as entrancing. “....dolphins.”

“They’re a fish. I read it in a magazine ages ago,” Emma bragged, while Alyssa was taking note of every blemish on Emma’s feet. 

“But they don’t have gills?” Alyssa answered, looking down at the demon with a smile while tickling Emma’s feet.

“But they do. They’re big and stick out of their back, I think,” Emma giggled, partially because her feet were so ticklish. 

“That’s a fin.” Alyssa said, booping Emma‘s nose and a blush spread across her cheeks. She laid back down closing her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, Emma was in Alyssa’s face and her hands were squishing her cheeks. 

“But the real point is...they have big brains. And all those big brains are going to waste and turn to enough seafood gumbo for all the entire human race. If they were still around and weren’t reduced to mole - mole - science things. Suddenly one day the sky’s on fire and alakazam, nothing.” Emma was waving her hands during this entire rant, and Alyssa was enthralled. 

“But, uhhh, tempting. you do that too.”

“Not to destruction. I give them a choice. And I will destroy you if you say this, but I actually do some go - “Emma cleared her throat and removed her feet from her lap. Alyssa missed her warmth. “Not bad things.”

“Time to sober up.” Alyssa nodded slowly, before both she and Emma started concentrating on the alcohol in their blood, willing it back into the bottles. If someone was looking in from the outside it would look like 2 people doing a dance from Cats who had no coordination, and zero enthusiasm. They both let out great sighs when all the bottles were filled, but while it was nice being sober again, the aftertaste in their mouths were less than ideal. After a few seconds of getting their brain cells properly sorted Alyssa finally started talking.

“I can’t interfere with the divine plan” She could not look at Emma while saying this, instead choosing to focus on her own hands. Emma waved her hand, getting Alyssa to look up. 

“Well, what about diabolical plans? How can you be sure that stopping me isn’t part of the divine plan?” 

“Well, I - “Alyssa thoughtfully stared into her empty glass. Grudgingly, she had to admit that Emma was right. “It could be, I suppose.”

“The antichrist right now is just potential molecules looking for a purpose. If I were to, say teach it in demonic ways, you would have to thwart me. Then it would be neutral, just your everyday Chloe or Noah.”

“Chloe?”

“I can’t read it’s mind, I don’t know what they want.” Alyssa nodded, thinking over what Emma was saying.

“I can’t disobey,” Alyssa blankly said. 

Emma sighed out long and loud, and made her way over to where Alyssa was sitting. The demon got down on one knee so she was face to face with the angel. She put her hand on each side of her cheeks and looked her straight into her, or at least that what it felt like for Alyssa. 

“Alyssa, if we don’t do anything, all of this will end in 11 years. It will not matter if you disobeyed or not, which you might not even be doing, since you’ll be trying to stop me.”  
Alyssa tried to focus on Emma’s words, but her hands and the way she was looking at her made it extremely difficult. 

“-no more cute little restaurants, no more ducks, no more books, just celestial harmonies for the rest of eternity” Emma took a long breath, eyes dropping down, before she continued.   
“No more of our arrangement, no more days in the park, no more evenings spent here, no more me”

This was what finally broke Alyssa, and while she’d wanted to stop the end since Mrs. Greene came for a visit the day before, she didn’t have the courage to step up before she heard those words. Her eyes drifted down, and after letting out a breath she felt like she’d held for days;

“Okay… how do you want to do this?” She said softly, looking into the demon’s, her partner's, eyes. 

**Five Years Later aka 6 years before the end of the world**

The plan went like this, when Grey turned 5 years old, both Emma and Alyssa applied for jobs at his house. While Emma showed up to the front door with ripped jeans, hawaian shirt, a nice coat and aviator sunglasses claiming to be the new nanny, showing off nice papers that were definitely not false, Alyssa took a different approach. She wormed her way into people’s mind that she was always working there and that her checks had just disappeared. You may like to imagine that the intended nanny got a nice job in the city working for posh but tolerable kids. Perhaps that is what happened. 

They both did their best resulting in a draw every time. When Emma went around telling the boy that he should not care about what other people meant, and always ask questions, Alyssa made sure the boy knew compassion for others and to take care of the planet.  
“Do I ask too many questions?” the boy asked.  


“No, never be afraid to ask questions, they’re the key ingredient to learning” Alyssa would answer, while Emma would say:  
“No, you can never ask too many questions, remember this Grey. Being able to wonder and question our orders is how we will thrive”

“What if people try to hurt me?” He would ask, while out gardening with Alyssa. While Grey was usually found in nice sweaters, like the kind you would imagine a rich kid would wear, Alyssa mostly wore overalls and a sunhat when working in the garden.

“Turn the other cheek. Karma will get them eventually,” She would say while patting him on the back with a dirt stained hand. He would ask the same question to Emma while they were drawing, of course she was drawing a demon with bright red eyes glowing unnaturally red. She would say:  
“Hurt them back. They’ll only take advantage of you again and again if you don’t defend yourself.” Grey could tell that she wallowing in an unimaginable pain he couldn’t understand. Instead, he would slide her paper over to his side and add a sloppy dinosaur smiling at the demon. This always made Emma smile back, and while he could not see her eyes, he did not need to in order to know that the smile was genuine. 

On his 10th birthday while Grey was marveling over a new instrument he had received, Emma and Alyssa talked in a corner of the garden where the weeds had grown over the gate.  
“He’s too normal.”  
“You don’t have to thank me,” Alyssa scoffed, uncrossing her legs and trying to take over the log they were sharing. Emma made a serpent slither up Alyssa’s leg, her space quickly becoming hers again. “It’s all my good influence.”  
“No, as in neither hellish or heavenly. He’s just like every boy his age. He isn’t trying to change anything, warp the minds of people, change the very nature or earth. All he does is sit in his room and play Club Penguin.”  
“There’s time,”Alyssa said worry plaguing her voice.  
“We’ll find out soon. Hell is sending him a hellhound, to pad by his side and protect him.” She had found out while rewatching Glee, when during Mr. Shue’s announcement of the nationals setlist, he had been instead listed out the exact time and date the hellhound would arrive. “It arrive on his 11th birthday at precisely 3pm.”  
“Will nobody notice a giant dog? His parents, maybe.” Alyssa blew a bubble with the gum she had been chewing for the entire conversation.  
“It’s reality angel. Nobody will notice a thing. Well, we’ll be there, damned or blessed, rain or shine.” Emma stuck out a hand and they shook hands.  
Alyssa popped her bubble, but the bubble of the world was already held in the Almighty’s ineffable grasp. 

**Present day  
Monday, 6 days before the end of the world**

Two days before Grey’s 11th birthday, which was supposed to be the event that marked the beginning of the apocalypse, Kevin and Nick were walking towards one of the largest cells in Hell. If you wanted to explain what Hell looks like, think of the most crowded hallway, in the most ugly looking basement, with zero windows, lights that were so dirty that they were more dust than glass. This would not even be close to what it actually looked like, so just imagine that only way worse.  
Nick opened the small window to the cell, and looked into the darkness. Even with his demon eyes, he could barely make out the large shape moving close to the opposing wall.  
“You think he’s ready?” Kevin said, looking over Nick’s shoulder.  
“He better be, the boys birthday is tomorrow. When he names the beast he’ll have access to his potential” Nick closed the window and the demons walked away from the door, thinking nothing could go wrong. 

**Wednesday, 3 days before the end of the world**

At 2.50 pm on Grey’s birthday, 10 minutes before his dog was supposed to appear, Emma was sitting in front of a group of children with a guitar. This was not how she imagined spending this birthday, she had thought both she and Alyssa would pose as waitstaff, but apparently her angelic partner had other plans. Plans she did not choose to share with Emma until 10 minutes before they were supposed to be at the party. Not that Emma could stay mad at Alyssa, even if she tried.

That’s why she now started the opening chords for Celebrate by Mika, her voice loud and clear when she started to sing. While the kids did not seem the most interested in listening to her sing, they did not look like they were totally bored either. It was a nice mix of texting on their phones while she played, but flicking an occasional lazy eye up.  
Not that Emma cared about the kids reaction, this was not why she did this, her eyes kept finding Alyssa next to the other waitstaff. Which was another great thing about wearing sunglasses, no one in the audience knew where her eyes were looking. Not even Alyssa. In Alyssa’s eyes she was just looking past her to the well manicured lawn.

Emma finished the song, and before she could even start the next song, one of the kids took a piece of cake and threw it at another one of the kids. This, as you could imagine, started a huge food fight, with no clean survivors, not even our heroes. The fight lasted for several minutes, before it finally died down. None of the kids or wait staff noticed the duo that sneaked out in the midst of the chaos. Emma wiped pieces of frosting off her Apple watch as the numbers changed to 3:00 on the dot. No dog.

She looked over at Alyssa, making sure the angel knew that she was in fact looking at her, before nodding her head in the direction of where the pick up was parked. The pair made their way there, ducking under the flying cakes. Grey had developed quite an arm over the years, probably due to Emma’s self defense classes.

“It’s late,” was all Alyssa said as she entered the car.  
“It’s not lat-” was all Emma managed to get out before the car radio made a static she was quite familiar with.  
“Hi Emma.”  
“Uhm, who is this?”  
“Britt, Lord of the Files, Master of Torments”  
“Ah, I’m just checking, the hellhound-” Emma was interrupted again, by the voice.  
“It should be with you now, did something go wrong?”  
Emma and Alyssa looked at each other, both with a face that said “Oh shit”.  
Emma quickly said “Nope, I see it now! Large, big hellhound!” before disconnecting the call.  
“We fucked up,” Emma said seriously, drawing her eyebrows in tight in her worry.  
“We have the wrong boy,” They said in unison.

The right boy was playing with his friends in the woods outside of the small town of Edgewater, Indiana. The group called themselves the Them, consisting of Dani, a youngster with short dark hair, a flannel tied around their waist loosely, currently playing with swords with Syd, another youngster, who had recently shaved all their hair off, wearing a sweater filled with magikarps. The third member of the group was Aimee, the only girl in the group, currently studying the sword movements of her friends.

The fourth member and fearless leader of the group was Alex, the birthday boy. He was currently sitting on a throne they’d made a while ago, in this little part of the forest which was theirs. They had several chairs and tables, and even a hammock which Alex’s dad had bought him. All of the furniture was mismatched but it was just the way they liked it. And there was a hellhound. It was currently standing outside, haunches coiled ready to prowl or bite or tear, whichever came first. It had a face even the most steadfast animal lover would send away, all dirt and sharp teeth.

“All I’m saying is that I want a dog for my birthday, I’m not assuming one will randomly shows up, but it’s my birthday, so I just think I deserve one” Alex ruffled his hair while saying this, it was currently pink, as he’d dyed it just a few days before. He had a way of getting what he wanted, like how he’d been allowed to color his hair in weird colors ever since he was 6.

“Oh so your parents are just gonna get you a big golden retriever then?” Syd said, blocking a hit from Dani.  
“I don’t want a big dog, I want a small one, the kind you can have in your bike basket, and that can sleep in your bed without having it take all the space.” The hellhound sunk and his molecules rearranged to their masters will, whining resentfully.  
“You’re not gonna get a dog.” Syd said, their arms crossed, sticking their sword in the ground blade down. “For Christmas I asked for a bike and I got a girls bike, all pink and frills. I’m not a girl or boy!“  
“Mood, but Alex, if you got a dog, what would you name it?” Dani joined in, hitting Syd with a fatal blow that went ignored.

This was the important moment, the naming. This was the point where the hellhound got its purpose, the reason for its existence. It could feel it in the air, the tension like how atlas felt holding up the earth.

“I think I would name it Cat,” Alex said, “Just imagine saying here’s Cat, and then having a dog show up.” This was the perfect moment for Cat to enter, barking and running up to the birthday boy, with the rest of the kids were standing around completely forgotten about their previous games.

They all sunk down, losing grace as all humans do in the presence of a small animal. 

In a small bookstore, miles away, a tired demon fell into a chair, smelling the change in the air and realizing the implications. Emma looked over at Alyssa, spending a moment just looking at her since she had no clue how many days left they had.

“The naming has happened, it has happened and we weren’t there. We failed.” Emma knocked over one of Alyssa’s many bibles her store kept off the table, the book mocking her.  
Alyssa’s right hand found hers, and she squeezed it before saying, “We’re gonna find him, we have to”

“I bet it wasn’t my fault, you know. My people must have messed it up,” Emma said, waving vaguely.  
“I bet they did, they’re demons after all”  
“No, no, I mean satanists. They must have forgotten to switch the babies or something.”  
“I don’t like those people,” Alyssa said disdainfully, neatly crossing her legs.  
“It depends on the people. Some do it right, some go and do some horrid things that I can’t even begin to fathom,” Emma sighed, Alyssa looking smugly at her. “I’ve told you this before haven’t I?”  
“Yeah you have but I like to hear you talk about it.”

Alyssa thought for a moment, her eyes looking in the air as if they were looking back in time.

“You would think they still had the birth records, maybe if we go back we can find some information, and maybe figure out where the other child went?”

“It’s been years, you idiot. It must be gone.” Emma threw a spare handkerchief lying on the ground at the angel, who caught it nicely and wiped the sweat off her brow.  
“It’s at least worth a try, do you have any better plans?” Alyssa waited a few seconds, letting Emma think. “I didn’t think so,” she said with a soft smile. “We can go visit them in the morning, the sooner the better.”

Two cups were filled with wine and after a short reprieve two occult forces were off to stop Armageddon.


	4. We've A Lot of Starving Faithful

Two other characters that are important to this story is Kaylee Klein and Shelby Gonzalez. Kaylee Klein came from a long line of witches, who’s older ancestor Mandy Nutter once wrote a book containing over 5000 prophecies. This would not sound so impressive, if you did not know the important fact that all these prophecies were true. They were true, but they were so specific and cryptic that understanding them was like assembling IKEA furniture in a dark room. The Klein family had for many years known about the upcoming apocalypse, and they also knew that Kaylee would be there, so her whole upbringing was around making sure she was ready for the event, as you would assume they would do, since they had had over 500 years of preparing. Learning cursive was replaced with memorizing prophecies. The customary stint one does in a rec league where everyone is equally bad was replaced with learning history literally no one else knew. At the prime age of 26, Kaylee had never had a close relationship to anyone except her mom, but she could speak 7 languages fluently. As Kaylee first stepped into her new life in her new cottage in the US, Alex had made the first step towards ending the world.

Shelby Gonzales had a bit of a different life. She had the normal childhood Kaylee never got, so she learned cursive, and went through rec league where everyone was equally bad. The only off thing about Shelby was that she had a tendency to destroy computers when trying to fix them, which had resulted in several angry calls from electricians complaining that she’d managed to darken the entire street for the 3rd time that week. Not that they ever could prove that it was she who did it, since she never actually did anything, other than fixing the computers. The farthest she had gotten was logging into her mom’s laptop, only the laptop had not a blue screen of death after she tried, but several ancient looking symbols against a blinding white background.  
This “death to computers” virus she seemed to carry was fine in most aspects of her life, except one, which was work. Imagine living in the 21st century and not being able to use a computer for work. It was not so weird that she got fired from job after job, but on the day that her story intertwines with ours, she had just gotten fired from another temp job after shutting down the power to the building after logging on.

Shelby was walking down the road, cardboard box in hand with her now useless things. She didn’t even have the chance to properly unpack, since she got fired on her first day. Her general mood of feeling as useless as her things made her not realize where she was walking before she walked straight into a man, which made his papers and her things spill over the asphalt. The other pedestrians quickly started walking around them, annoyed at them, but also used to it since this was NYC. 

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t see where I was going-” Shelby quickly apologized while grabbing her stuff haphazardly, just wanting to not be the one embarrassing tourist, and helping the man get his papers. “I’m so sorry! Is there anything I can do to help you-” After finally collecting all of his papers the man rose and gave her a kind smile. 

“It’s alright, they don’t matter anyway.” He studied her and offered her a hand. “You’ve look like you’re down on your luck. Would you like to come over for a cup of tea?” Shelby was taken aback from this suggestion, but quickly nodded.

“Uhm, yes, I would love that very much. If you’re sure of course - “

“ - I’m sure, Ms….” 

Shelby moved all of her stuff into one hand, which was quite an impressive feat, and reached her hand out. 

“Shelby Gonzalez, nice to meet you, Mr….” the man took her hand and answered with his name, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Hawkins started leading Shelby towards his home, and Shelby started following, maybe thinking she should have thought twice before agreeing to join this stranger for tea. She subtly pulled a pocket knife out of her purse. She wasn’t naive. 

He lead her for a couple of blocks, before walking up to a doorway of a normal looking house, and led her into the living room. Her box was put down on an old looking chest, and Shelby properly looked around the room, while Mr. Hawkins went to put on some tea water. A slightly open door piqued her interest and she wandered over, something drawing her there. She slowly pushed the door open, peeking into the dusty room. The walls of the room was covered in old maps and odd drawings, and there were some weird displays of pins every size and shape behind a glass frame. She took another cautious step into the room, accidentally brushing a photograph off the table. She barely caught it in time and gasped finding a photo of her ancestors on the front. 

“I see you’ve found my secret room” Mr. Hawkins said jokingly, standing in the doorway with a tray filled with cups and a teapot, making Shelby jump in surprise. 

“What is all this?” She gestured towards the room, with her hand holding the frame.

“You’ve found my best treasure yet.” Mr. Hawkins gestured to the sofa and Shelby followed. 

“What I have there is the best historic collection on witches and witch hunters in the world. What you’re holding there-” he says, pointing at the photograph. “Is one of the very few photographs we have of Ashley Gonzalez, one of the most famous witch hunters. She was the one responsible for capturing Mandy Nutter, Prophet.” 

Shelby just stared at the picture, before realizing what this meant. “Wait, so witches are real?”

Mr. Hawkins nodded and sipped his tea. She took a shaky sip of her own cup, inhaling the calm scent of chamomile. 

“That’s my great-great-great-great grandmother,” she breathed. 

“Fascinating, you guys have the same face” He commented. “You know what, I do need some help around the place, keeping track of new information, sorting through the old documents and general cleaning of the room. Would that be something you could be interested in?” 

He had a kindness in his eyes that made her trust him and it wasn’t like people were lining up to employ her. And so far, it looked like this job would not contain any computers, so double win!

“Yes.”

**Thursday, 2 days before the end of the world**

“No!” Emma threw her legs up onto her ornate desk. “No,no, no, no! Can’t even keep track of the antichrist can you?!”

Her only solace in times like this was her plants. While she didn’t encounter apocalyptic situations often, she got herself in danger much more than a decent demon should. Most demons were a fly on the wall, sometimes literally, but Emma had a flair that was unprecedented. 

She had heard of talking to her plants in the 70s, but what she did couldn’t be described as talking to them. It was more vaguely threatening, in a manner that caused them to tremble down to their roots. Her plants were the most verdant and green in the world, but also the most terrified. 

She strutted into the place she housed her plants, which the plants would call it a prison if they could speak. Emma narrowed her eyes at them and they turned their leaves away from her in fear. She stalked the room, her shoes clicked against the marble floor. The demon whipped her head to a spot, slowly approaching the quivering plant.

“Is that a spot.” It wasn’t a question, it was an insult. An insult to the little life the plants had. 

“You know what I’ve told you about leaf spots.”

“You know what you’ve done. You’ve disappointed me.” Emma held the plant up, it’s life dangling in her grasp. All the other plants that could have been in its place turned deathly still. “Say goodbye to your friend.” 

She turned sharply, with the practice of a military general who took it much too seriously. In truth, Emma couldn’t bear to get rid of the plants. She would present them to Alyssa, who treasured them, second to her books. By now, the angel had a practical forest hidden behind a gigantic pile of books. 

On the other side of town, two angels entered said angel’s bookshop, which only had around 3 shoppers, which was 3 more than Alyssa wanted in her store.  
If Alyssa was honest with herself, her bookstore was more for storing books than for selling, which meant she did everything in her power to make sure people didn’t complete their purchase. This included odd opening hours, which could be read on the sign on the store door;

I open the shop on most weekdays at about 9:30 or perhaps 10am. While occasionally I open the shop as early as 8, I have been known not to open until 1, except on Tuesday. I tend to close about 3:30pm, or earlier if something needs tending to. However, I might occasionally keep the shop open until 8 or 9 at night, you never know when you might need some light reading. On days that I am not in, the shop will remain closed. On weekends, I will open the shop during normal hours unless I am elsewhere. Bank holidays will be treated in the usual fashion, with early closing on Wednesdays, or sometimes Fridays. (For Sundays see Tuesdays.)

Other tactics were; odd odors, no proper categorizing system, a cash-only policy (in a foreign currency no one had heard of) and sometimes just ignoring the people brave enough to walk up to the register with a book in hand. Occasionally people who were too persistent would conveniently end up being picked up by men in black cars. 

The two new angels didn’t exactly look out of place, but the other shoppers felt like they were out of place. Alyssa didn’t see them at first, to busy hiding away a first edition copy of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, but she heard the bell signaling that someone had entered. As she peeked around the bookshelf and saw the signature green pantsuit of her superior, her blood went cold, or it would have if her vessel had contained blood. She quickly made sure her white suit looked pristine, and dusted away some imaginary dust, before walking up to Mrs. Greene, who had picked up a book (Mrs. Beeton’s book of household management), and the other angel. 

“Hi, is there anything I can help you with?” Alyssa hoped the answer was no, but knew that hoping would not change reality. 

“Yes, we would like to buy one of these material objects-”

“Books” the other angel supplemented.

“Books! Could we discuss the process of purchase in a private place?”  
“It’s inappropriate, if you know what I mean,” Ms. Greene said slyly, winking. 

“Porn. It’s porn.”

Alyssa, just nodded and lead the pair into one of the backrooms, closing the door after them, rushing to save them from further embarrassment. “Alizafale, you remember Kat Volumto, right?” 

Alyssa looked over at the other angel, Kat, before nodding slowly, her eyes icy. “Yes, of course, how could I forget.”

Kat just smiled, and Alyssa looked back at Mrs. Greene for an explanation of this impromptu meeting, but before she had the chance Kat spoke. 

“I smell something...evil…”  
Alyssa froze for a second, her mind blanking at the thought of Emma’s smell, before quickly explaining. 

“It’s the…Neil Gaiman books,” The other angels just nodded, not familiar enough with human authors who’ll probably end up in Hell. 

“We’re here for and update on the antichrist” Mrs. Greene said, getting to the root of the matter. This was what Alyssa was afraid of, and she tried to control her emotions from showing on her face. 

“Oh, has something happened?” Alyssa knew exactly what had happened, but she didn’t exactly want her superiors know that she’d been hanging out with a demon, her so called enemy. 

“Oh a lot has happened. The hellhound has been set loose, the four horsemen are being summoned as we speak. Everything is going according to the divine plan.” Mrs. Greene said, while she let a finger run over some of the books on the shelf, frowning when her finger picked up dust.

“The horsemen...who’s responsible for summoning them?” 

Mrs. Greene let out a breath through clenched teeth. “Ooff, that’s not my department. I believe we outsource that kind of thing”

“Well, I think it’s about time. You can’t have a war without War,” this was the first time Kat had spoken during this conversation, and it was also the last. Angels were careful to open their mouth around Ms. Greene. 

“You are so right!” Mrs. Greene wiped her hands to remove the few dust particles that had gotten stuck, before nodding towards the door. Alyssa opened it and watched the pair leave the shop, and finally releasing a breath she’d held since they entered.


End file.
